BAILEY 


An  Inaugural  Dissertation  on  the 


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Columbia  JBntomitp 
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College  of  ^fipatcians;  anb  burgeons; 
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AN 


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INAUGURAL  DISSERTATION     / 

ON   THE* 

ORIGIN  AND  PROPAGATION 

>w       OF    THE 

YELLOW    FEVER. 


SUBMITTED  TO  THE  PUBLIC  EXAMINATION  OF  THE 

FACULTY  OF  PHYSIC 

UNDER    THE    AUTHORITY    OF   THE 

TRUSTEES  OF  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE, 

IN  THE 

STATE  OF  NEW-YORK; 
The  Right  Rev.  BENJAMIN  MOORE,  D.  D.  President: 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHYSIC, 

ON  THE  4th  OF  MAY,  1802. 

By  JOSEPH  BAYLEY. 


NEW-YORK; 


Printed  by  T.  &  J.  Swords,  Printers  to  the  Faculty  of  Physic 
of  Columbia  College. 

1802. 


A/       /&/£&t< 


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Doctor  WRIGHT  POST, 

Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Surgery  in  Columbia  College. 

i  ERMIT  me  to  offer  my  sincere  acknowledgments  for 
the  attention  you  was  pleased  to  show  me  while  I  studied 
under  your  care ;  the  remembrance  of  which  will  always 
afford  the  highest  satisfaction  to  your  grateful  and  much 
obliged  pupil, 

JOSEPH  BAYLEY, 


Doctor  rSAAC  LED  YARD, 

Health  Officer; 

Doctor  JAMES  TILLARY, 

Resident  Physician; 
AND 

Doctor  EDWARD  MILLER, 

Health  Commissioner : 

1HIS  Dissertation  is  most  respectfully  dedicated,  in 
grateful  testimony  of  the  numerous  favours  conferred  on 
their  much  obliged  and  very  humble  servant, 

The  AUTHOR. 


INAUGURAL  DISSERTATION 


YELLOW  FEVER, 


A  Dangerous  and  often  fatal  disease,  which 
is  now  generally  called  Yellow  Fever,  has 
excited  a  high  degree  of  public  attention 
throughout  the  United  States  of  America, 
ever  since  the  year  1793.  Although  the 
features  of  this  disease  are  very  strong,  and 
in  most  cases  easily  to  be  distinguished  from 
every  other  complaint,  medical  men  of  the 
first  reputation  are  not  agreed  to  this  hour, 
whether  it  is  to  be  considered  as  a  native  of 
our  own  country,  or  the  production  of  a  fo- 
reign climate,  imported,  like  other  exotics, 
from  year  to  year,  and  living" or  thriving  only 
so  long  as  it  can  be  cherished  by  a  warm  or 
temperate  atmosphere.     It  has  happened  in 


this  instance,  as  it  has  frequently  in  othef^ 
that  the  advocates  for  the  opposite  opinions 
have  each  been  so  zealously  attached  to  their 
own  mode  of  viewing  the  question,  that  a 
proper  attention  has  not  been  given  to  facts, 
and  the  arguments  naturally  deducible  from 
those  facts,  which,  in  a  case  of  this  kind, 
ought  to  be  the  chief  ground  upon  which  a 
judgment  should  be  formed. 

Considering  the  experience  and  abilities  of 
gentlemen  who  have  written  on  this  subject, 
I  can  say  with  much  truth  and  sincerity, 
"  non  nostrum  inter  hos  tantas  componere 
lites."  But  as  I  have  .for  some  years  lived 
much  among  the  unfortunate  subjects  of  the 
yellow  fever,  and  as  it  has  been  my  duty  to 
observe  it  in  its  different  forms,  and  to  inquire 
concerning  its  origin  and  progress,  I  have 
formed  an  opinion  somewhat  different  from 
either  of  the  theories  that  have  been  com- 
monly supported ;  wherefore  I  shall  venture 
upon  the  middle  ground,  and  shall  endea- 
vour to  prove  that  the  yellow  fever  may 
be  imported  from  foreign  parts,  and  that  it 
may  be,  and  has  been  generated  in  the 
United  States.         .    . 


<J 

Considering  the  great  importance  of  this 
subject,  whoever  contributes  in  any  degree  to 
its  elucidation,  may  be  supposed  to  have 
served  the  public;  for  there  is  not  an  indivi- 
dual in  the  United  States  whom  this  question 
does  not  concern,  either  as  it  may  affect  his 
personal  safety,  or  his  private  interest.  It 
reaches  alike  the  merchant  and  the  planter. 

The  complaint  which  is  the  subject  of  our 
present  consideration  is  an  infectious,  not  a 
contagious  fever;  and  it  may  be  of  great  imj 
portance  that  this  distinction  be  well  under- 
stood and  uniformly  observed. 

Infection  and  contagion  are  frequently 
used  indiscriminately  to  convey  the  same 
idea,  or  indifferently  to  express  the  same  dis-* 
ease;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  an  in^ 
fectious  fever  being  mistaken  for  one  that  is 
contagious,  has  proved  the  source  of  much 
calamity:  it  has  caused  the  sick  in  many 
cases  to  be  deprived  of  the  comforts  and  as- 
sistance that  were  essential  to  their  recovery. 
They  have  been  deserted  by  their  timorous 
attendants,  and  have  perished  for  the  want 
of  proper  care. 

The  terms  infection  and  contagion  are  pro- 

B 


perly  applied  to  two  distinct  orders  of  diseases; 
and  if  the  distinction  was  constantly  attended 
to,  people  would  become  better  judges  of  the 
danger  to  which  they  are  exposed  by  remain- 
ing in  cities  or  other  places  where  endemical 
complaints  are  prevailing.  A  contagious- 
fever  is  one  by  which  we  cannot  be  assailed 
more  than  once ;;  but  we  may  be  assailed  from 
time  to  time  by  an  infectious  fever.  A  con- 
tagious fever  is  generally  and  almost  certainly 
communicated  by  touching,  or  coming  near 
a  patient  who  labours  under  that  disease ; 
but  a  patient  who  is  afflicted  with  an  infec- 
tious fever  may  be  approached  or  touched 
with  the  utmost  safety,  provided  he  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  pure  atmosphere,  and  is  fur- 
nished with  clean  bedding  and  clothes. 

A  contagious  fever  appears  in  every  case 
to  proceed  from  a  fever  of  the  same  genus ; 
but  infectious  fevers  seem  to  be  anomalous  r 
their  parents  are  not  so  discoverable;  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  they  are  not  begotten 
by  fevers.  A  contagious  fever  is  propagated 
in  cold  as  freely  as  in  hot  weather ;  it  spreads 
in  a  pure  atmosphere,  or  in  that  which  is  vi- 
tiated; but  the  progress  of  infectious  fevers  is 


11  .  ' 

arrested  by  cold  weather,  and  their  propaga- 
tion prevented  by  a  pure  atmosphere. 

Fevers  that  are  occasioned  by  putrid  exha- 
lations, whether  created  by  animal  and  ve- 
getable decomposition,  or  by  human  effluvia 
arising  from  the  bodies  of  people  who  are 
crowded  in  damp  apartments,  badly  venti- 
lated, where  cleanliness  is  not  observed, 
ought  to  be  denominated  infectious..  Xf 
healthy  people  should  venture  into  such 
places,  many  of  them  would  probably  be  in- 
fected :  but  let  the  sick  be  removed  and  tho- 
roughly cleansed;  wash  their  bodies  with 
water  and  soap;  take  away  thek  dirty  cloth- 
ing,, and  furnish  them  with  that  which  is 
clean ;  convey  them  to  well-ventilated  build- 
ings, situated  in  a  healthy  place;  furnish 
diem  with  clean  bedding;  then  an  infectious 
fever,  that  much-dreaded  disease,  which  few 
escape  who  come  within  its  original  sphere 
of  action  (the  place  in  which  it  is  generated) 
becomes  in  a  great  degree  harmless,  so  that 
those  whose  business  it  is  to  visit  and  attend 
upon  the  sick  may  perform  that  duty  with 
yery  little  risk  of  being  infected. 

Plow  different  from  this  is  a  contagious 


12 

fever?  Let  a  number  of  people  with  the 
small-pox  or  measles,  which  are  contagious 
fevers,  be  placed  under  circumstances  such 
as  I  have  described;  what  would  be  the  re- 
sult? It  will  be  admitted,  I  believe,  that  if 
one  hundred  persons  who  never  had  either 
of  these  complaints  should  officiate  as  nurses 
in  an  hospital  where  there  were  many  pa- 
tients with  these  diseases,  after  all  the  precau- 
tionary methods  which  could  be  taken,  hardly 
one  would  escape  the  contagion. 

Having  stated  what  I  consider  the  essential 
and  clear  distinction  that  is  to  be  made  be- 
tween the  yellow  fever  and  those  diseases 
which  are  properly  called  contagious,  I  shall 
endeavour  to  trace  the  origin  and  cause  of  the 
former.  This  is  a  question  which  demands 
the  most  impartial  investigation,  and  one  that 
claims  our  utmost  attention ;  for  our  prejudices 
in  favour  of  our  native  soil  are  liable  to  induce 
us  to  doubt  whether  so  dangerous  and  destruc- 
tive a  disease  can  be  produced  among  us. 

It  is  our  duty  to  hear  and  believe  the  truth, 
that,  when  the  origin  and  cause  are  known, 
our  efforts  may  be  properly  directed;  and 
should  the  remedy  be  within  the  compass  of 


13 

human  exertion,  it  ought  to  be  assiduously 
applied,  until  the  domestic  cause,  if  such 
there  be,  is  overcome.  Then  we  may  with 
safety  rely  on  rigid  quarantine  laws,  faithfully 
executed,  to  prevent  the  admission  of  pesti- 
lential diseases  from  abroad;  and  should  the 
disease,  by  accident,  escape  the  vigilance  of 
the  Health-Officer,  its  baneful  influence 
would  not  be  very  extensive. 

How  is  the  yellow  fever  produced,  or  what 
is  the  climate  or  country  of  which  it  is  a 
native?  Although  we  should  not  be  able  to 
find  an  appropriate  and  native  soil  for  this 
child  of  Pandora,  I  have  many  reasons  for 
thinking,  that  the  popular  opinion  of  its 
being  always  imported,  is  riot  well  founded. 
The  very  countries  to  which  this  fever  has 
been  attributed  deny  its  originating  there,  and 
perhaps  with  the  same  propriety  as  we  do. 
Since,  then,  all  disclaim  it,  and  since  it  cannot 
be  traced  to  any  place  in  particular,  let  us  can- 
didly examine  the  causes  to  which  it  has  been 
attributed,  and  see  whether  they  are  adequate 
to  its  production.  I  do  not  pretend  to  know 
what  are  the  chemical  combinations  or  mix- 
ture of  airs  that  are  produced  from  a  large 


14 

mass  of  animal  and  vegetable  matter  brought 
into  active  fermentation  by  sufficient  heat 
and  moisture,  but  the  effects  of  those  combi- 
nations have  been  severely  felt;  they  have 
produced  fevers  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
grades,  according  to  the  activity  and  continu- 
ance of  the  pestilential  gases,  and  the  liability 
of  the  body  to  receive  infection.  Such,  inva- 
riably, will  be  the  result  of  animal  and  veget- 
able putrefaction  in  all  those  countries  where 
the  solar  heat  is  sufficiently  powerful,  and  the 
inhabitants  predisposed  to  febrile  complaints. 
The  East  and  West-Indies,  some  parts  of 
Europe,  the  coast  of  Africa,  bordering  on  the 
Mediterranean,  crowded  ships  on  long  voy- 
ages, and  our  own  country,  afford  recent  and 
lamentable  proofs  of  the  local  origin  of  infec- 
tious fevers.  Witness  the  summer  and  fall  of 
the  year  1798,  which  were  unusually  sultry. 
There  was  scarce  a  seaport  along  the  coast  of 
the  United  States  that  was  not  afflicted  with 
this  deadly  malady,  while  the  intermediate 
country  was  entirely  exempted.  Does  not 
this  fact  convey  sufficient  evidence,  that  there 
was  something  particularly  wrong  in  our 
cities?  for  many  persons  infected  with  the 


15 

cause  of  this  fever  in  the  towns,  sickened  and 
died  in  the  country,  and  did  not  propagate 
the  distemper.  This  circumstance  alone 
would  almost  convince  the  unprejudiced 
inquirer,  that  the  yellow  fever  may  originate 
in  our  cities. 

The  most  conclusive  argument  in  favour 
of  the  domestic  origin  of  this  disease,  is  its 
total  annihilation  as  soon  as  severe  frost  sets 
in ;  for  this  at  once  arrests  the  progress  of  pu- 
trefaction, and  thereby  stops  the  generation 
of  pestilential  airs. 

In  Africa  and  India,  where  frost  is  seldom 
severe,  the  progress  of  the  disease  is  checked 
by  the  periodical  rains  which  swell  their 
rivers  and  inundate  their  low  lands,  thereby 
preventing  the  direct  action  of  the  sun  upon 
those  animal  and  vegetable  substances  which 
had  been  left  by  the  waters  retiring  to  their 
accustomed  channels. 

Do  not  these  facts  demonstrate  the  source 
of  this  malady?  and  do  they  not  clearly  ex- 
plain its  occurrence  in  the  summer  and  fall 
months,  and  its  disappearance  at  the  approach 
of  winter? 

This  fever  generally  commences  with  that 


1(5 

class  of  citizens  who  are  reduced  to  the  ne- 
cessity  of  living  in  small  and  crowded  houses,* 
in  the  most  unhealthy  parts  of  the  town. 
Strangers  from  a  colder  climate,  farmers  from 
the  adjacent  country,  and  inhabitants  of  the 
city  who  have  breathed  some  time  a  purer 
atmosphere,  are  sooner  taken  down  by  this 
fever  than  .people  who  live  constantly  in  the 
city.  They  are  also  attacked  with  more  vio- 
lence. But  it  is  observed  that  strangers  from 
the  West-Indies,  a  warmer  climate,  are  less 
^endangered  by  the  disease  than  our  own  citi- 
zens. If  it  should  be  alleged  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country  are  accustomed  to 
breathe  a  purer  air  than  those  who  dwell  in 
cities,  which  is  doubtless  true;  then  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  a  peculiar  and  conta- 
minated state  of  air  exists  in  the  city,  which 
becomes  daily  more  contaminated  from  the 
same  vitiating  cause,  until  it  arrives  at  the 
degree  which  produces  pestilence. 

The  West-Indies  are  usually  sickly  in  time 
of  war.  Is  not  this  to  be  attributed  to  the 
greater  number  of  strangers  who  are  there  on 
such  occasions,  who  are  not  accustomed  to 
warm  climates?    for  the   former  inhabitants 


\1 

are  generally  as  healthy  then  as  in  times  of 
peace. 

The  yellow  fever  has  appeared  in  the  in- 
terior of  this  country,  beyond  the  reach  of 
imported  contagion.    Whence  did  it  arise  ? 

During  three  years  residence  at  the  Ma- 
rine Hospital,  I  have  seen  many  and  pain- 
ful demonstrations  that  fevers  of  the  most 
dangerous  nature  may  be  produced  by  a  con- 
taminated atmosphere. 

In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1801,  se- 
veral vessels  arrived  at  this  port  from  Ireland. 
In  one  of  these  vessels,  which  was  not  large, 
upwards  of  four  hundred  men  and  women 
were  cooped  up  for  eight  or  ten  weeks,  in 
the  warmest  season  of  the  year;  many  of  them 
Without  a  change  of  clothing  sufficient  to 
keep  themselves  clean,  and  using  a  diet  to 
which  they  had  not  been  accustomed.  All 
these  contaminating  circumstances,  heighten- 
ed by  the  indescribable  languor  caused  by 
sea-sickness,  whereby  men  become  negligent 
of  their  persons,  and  sometimes  indifferent  as 
to  their  existence,  produced  an  infectious 
fever  among  the  passengers,  and  several  of 
them  died  with  the  characteristic  symptoms 


18 

of  yellow  fever,  such  as  black  vomit,  livid 
spots,  eyes  highly  inflamed  and  protruded 
from  their  sockets,  and  universal  yellowness 
of  the  skin. 

The  resources  of  the  quarantine  establish- 
ment were  not  at  that  time  competent  to 
afford  an  asylum  with  all  the  requisite  apart- 
ments for  the  numerous  sick  and  distressed 
emigrants  who  arrived  in  the  space  of  a  few 
weeks;  for  they  were  three  times  the  number 
that  had  come  to  the  marine  hospital  in  any 
former  year.  Hence  it  was  that  the  sick  were 
crowded  together  more  than  could  be  desired ; 
whereby  their  recovery  was  retarded,  and 
the  danger  to  which  the  attendants  were  ex- 
posed was  greatly  beyond  what  had  ever  be- 
fore occurred  at  that  institution;  so  that  of  all 
the  attendants  on  the  health  establishment, 
fifty-eight  in  number,  none,  except  the  boat- 
men and  one  washerwoman,  escaped  a  dan- 
gerous illness;  many  of  them  were  infected 
three  or  four  times,  and  one  of  the  nurses 
seven  times. 

The  Health  Officer,  Doctor  Richard 
Bayley,  whose  medical  knowledge  was  par- 
ticularly directed  to  the  m-ost  useful  part  of 


19 

ibis  profession  ;  whose  assiduity  in  alleviating 
the  pains  of  the  distressed,  and  tranquillizing 
the  mind,  was  no  less  conspieuous  than  his 
skill  in  restoring  the  body  to  its  accustomed 
vigour;  whose  accurate  judgment  was  no  less 
highly  esteemed,  than  his  benevolence  -dis- 
tinguished for  the  innumerable  acts  of  public 
and  private  good  in  which  his  talents  and 
means  were  constantly  engaged;  this  inesti- 
mable man,  while  executing,  with  scrupulous 
fidelity^  the  important  trust  reposed  in  him  as 
guardian  of  the  public  health,  caught  the 
fatal  fever  which  terminated  his  useful  life. 
Remembrance  oft  recals  the  afflicting  scene, 
and  reminds  me  how  much  I  am  indebted  to 
his  parental  care,  who  first  exhibited  to  me 
the  inimitable  structure  of  the  human  frame; 
explained  the  various  parts  of  the  body,  and 
the  diseases  to  which  they  are  liable;  and 
showed  the  union  and  harmony  of  this  chief 
and  most  perfect  work  of  him,  whom  we 
cannot  sufficiently  adore  as  the  author  of 
every  good. 

What  could  have  produced  the  prominent 
symptoms  of  yellow  fever,  viz.  constant  nau- 
sea ending  in  black  vomit,   dark-coloured 


20 

stools,  protruded  and  highly  inflamed  eyes^ 
with  universal  yellowness  of  the  body,  which 
appeared  on  board  of  the  Irish  ship?     It  was 
not  imported  from  the  West-Indies — It  must 
have  been  the  effect  of  a  vitiated  atmosphere. 
Why  do   the   seaports    of    Great-Britain, 
when  such  an  extensive  and  direct  intercourse 
is  constantly  kept  up  between  them  and  the 
West-India  islands,  escape  the  yellow  fever? 
Is  it  not  because  their  climate  is  not  suffi- 
ciently warm  to  corrupt  the  atmosphere  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  be  capable  of  generating 
and  propagating  the  fever? 

The  most  plausible  argument  that  has  been 
advanced  against  the  possibility  of  domestic 
origin,  and  which  is  by  some  conceived  a 
very  important  one,  is  the  circumstance  of 
the  city  of  New- York  having  been  exempted 
from  the  yellow  fever  during  the  revolutionary 
war,  at  which  time  there  was  apparently  more 
offensive  matter  in  the  city  than  there  has 
been  at  any  time  since.  The  following  solu- 
tion of  this  objection  is  humbly  submitted  for 
consideration. 

Heat,  which  is  one  of  our  greatest  blessings, 
whose  influence  and  effects  are  so  essential  to 


ill 

our  very  existence,  has,  from  ill-directed  la* 
hours,  been  the  active  agent  in  extinguishing 
the  vital  flame  which  it  first  inspired.  There 
is  not  any  reason  to  believe  that  the  general 
temperature  of  the  atmosphere  in  the  United 
States  is  warmer  during  the  summer  months 
at  present  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  But 
it  will  readily  be  perceived,  that  the  heat  of 
the  atmosphere  wdthin  the  last  twenty  years 
has  been  very  much  aifected  in  the  city  of 
New- York  by  the  increase  of  brick  walls  and 
stone  pavements,  by  which  the  rays  of  the 
sun  are  reflected  and  the  heat  greatly  aug- 
mented. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  increased  heat  is  not 
the  chief  cause  of  the  late  corrupted  state  of 
the  atmosphere.  Many  acres  of  ground  have 
been  made,  principally  on  the  East-river, 
within  the  last  twenty  years;  and  the  advan- 
tage of  wholesome  earth  with  which  the  first 
docks  were  made,  has  been,  of  late  years,  in 
some  measure  dispensed  with,  for  it  was  not 
so  cheap  and  easily  to  be  procured  as  formerly. 
A  considerable  part  of  the  materials  with 
which  these  docks  have  been  formed  is  perish- 
able; and  these  huge  masses  of  corrupting 


22 

matter  are  kept  constantly  moist  by  water, 
which  penetrates  into  those  made  grounds  and 
greatly  accelerates  the  putrefactive  fermenta- 
tion. This  mixture  requires  no  other  assist- 
ance than  a  sufficient  degree  of  heat  to  vola^ 
tilize  and  disengage  its  deadly  gases,  which 
the  south-eastern  side  of  the  city  receives 
from  the  sun,  by  its  favourable  exposure, 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  When 
the  water  is  in  larger  quantity  than  the  earth 
can  absorb,  which  frequently  *  happens,  it 
oozes  into  the  cellars  in  the  most  populous 
parts  of  the  city,  where  it  discharges  the 
noxious  qualities  of  the  putrefying  substances, 
which,  in  that  state,  become  far  more  inju- 
rious to  health  than  if  they  were  exposed  td 
the  correcting  power  of  the  general  atmos- 
phere. The  greater  part  of  these  immense 
hidden  masses  of  corrupting  materials,  whose 
fair  exterior  conceals  the  destructive  instru- 
ments of  death,  have  been  deposited  since  the 
revolutionary  war.  i 

A  constant  intercourse  was  preserved  with 
the  West-Indies  during  the  revolutionary  war, 
and  until  the  year  1793;  and  no  precaution 
was  taken  against  importing  infectious  fevers, 


23 

until  the  dreadful  calamity  which  befel  Phi- 
ladelphia gave  us  the  first  awful  warning  to 
guard  against  foreign  plagues.  During  all 
that  time  no  yellow  fever  raged  here,  although 
the  disease  existed  in  the  West-Indies;  nor 
did  it  become  epidemic  until  1795,  although, 
previous  to  that  period,  there  had  been  a  fqw 
sporadic  cases  on  the  East-river  yearly,  when 
it  neither  was  called  yellow  fever,  nor  was 
imported  contagion  thought  of. 

The  natural  situation  of  this  city  for  health 
is  scarcely  exceeded  by  any  in  the  world;  and 
if  the  inhabitants  had  been  content  with  the 
site  as  nature  formed  it,  I  am  convinced  that 
the  fatal  effects  of  the  yellow  fever  would 
have  been  very  *  limited ;  and  even  these 
might  have  been  totally  prevented  by  effi- 
cient quarantine  laws,  carefully  and  faithfully 
executed. 

From  the  facts  that  have  been  stated,  the 
following  conclusions,  respecting  the  cause 
and  progress  of  the  yellow  fever,  may  be 
drawn. 

The  air,  in  some  cases,  appears  to  be  charged 
with  certain  miasmata  exhaled  from  putre- 
scent bodies,  which  are  of  a  deleterious  qua- 


24 

lity.  Those  miasmata,  entering  into  the  cir- 
culating fluids  by  means  of  the  lungs,  the 
stomach*  or  of  the  absorbent  vessels  of  the 
skin,  operate  as  a  ferment,  and  produce  fever. 
Some  constitutions  are  more  easily  affected  by 
these  fermentative  particles  than  others; 
wherefore  some  persons  are  unhurt  by  a  por- 
tion of  corrupted  air,  which  proves  deadly  to 
others.  Those  who  are  accustomed  to  any 
kind  of  contaminated  air,  are  less  affected  by 
it  than  others.  Thus  men  may  accustom 
themselves,  by  degrees,  to  swallow,  with  im- 
punity, such  dcses  of  opium  as  would  occa- 
sion almost  instant  death  in  those  who  had  not 
been  habituated  to  this  drug. 

In  all  crowded  cities  the  air  is  contami- 
nated ;  for  it  is  highly  charged  with  perspir- 
able matter  from  the  lungs  and  skins  of  men 
and  beasts.  Such  an  atmosphere,  in  its  di- 
lute state,  frequently  produces  a  moderate 
typhus.  When  it  is  more  concentrated,  or 
more  virulent,  it  produces  what  is  called  the 
jail  fever;  and  with  a  little  variation  in  its 
quality,  it  produces  what  is  called  the  yellow 
fever.  It  is  believed  that  the  perspirable  mat- 
ter, from  persons  labouring  under  the  yellow 


25 

fever,  when  added  to  the  common  contami- 
nated air  in  small  houses,  in  the  narrow  streets 
of  large  towns,  and  in  warm  weather,  may 
prove  dangerous  to  attendants,  though  it 
would  have  been  perfectly  harmless  in  the 
country,  or  in  any  other  place  where  it  was 
unassisted  by  a  corrupted  atmosphere. 

If  it  be  admitted  that  the  yellow  fever 
may  be  caused  by  contaminated  air,  it  must 
also  be  admitted  that  this  fever  may  be  im- 
ported ;  or*  to  speak  more  qorrectly,  the  cause 
of  it  may  be  imported.  He  must  be  a  care- 
less and  very  inattentive  observer*  provided 
his  occupation  is  mercantile,  who  has  not  dis- 
covered that  goods  from  the  hold  of  a  vessel, 
from  a  warm  climate,  in  warm  weather,  are 
charged  with  air  that  appears,  by  its  smell, 
to  be  of  a  quality  very  different  from  the 
surrounding  atmosphere*  And  it  must  be 
admitted  that  goods  packed  up  in  a  city  or 
port  where  the  yellow  fever  prevails,  are 
fully  saturated  with  contaminated  air;  nor 
can  it  be  supposed  that  a  morbid  gas,  capable 
of  exciting  yellow  fever  in  such  port,  will  be 
improved  or  corrected  by  close  confinement 
in  the  warm  hold  of  a  ship:  on  the  contrary, 

D 


its  deleterious  qualities  may„  and  no  doubt 
are  increased.  When  goods  charged  with 
such  a  virulent  gas  happen  to  be  opened  in 
another  city,  in  warm  weather,  where  the  air 
is  already  contaminated,  they  may,  and  per- 
haps frequently  do  produce  yellow  fever  or 
other  typhus. 

In  a  word,  after  all  the  views  we  have  been 
able  to  take  of  the  yellow  fever,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  believe  that  it  may  be  generated  in 
our  own  cities,  and  may  be  propagated  by 
the  medium  of  impure  air;  and  that  the  seeds 
of  it,  imported  from  a  foreign  country,  may 
be  cherished  and  propagated  among  ourselves 
by  a  corrupted  atmosphere. 

If  the  yellow  fever  cannot  be  generated  in 
the  United  States,  it  would  follow  that  there 
can  be  little  use  in  removing  filth  from  our 
streets  and  wharves,  and  that  cleanliness, 
which  has  long  since  been  deemed  half  a 
virtue,  might  safely  be  neglected.  And  if 
that  fever  be  the  exclusive  production  of  this 
country;  if,  like  the  West-India  hurricanes, 
it  cannot  be  imported ;  it  would  follow  that 
quarantine  laws,  and  all  attentions  of  that 
kind,  are  absolutely  useless.     But  if  the  rea- 


21 

sonings  we  have  advanced  are  well  founded, 
it  is  evident  that  cleanliness  at  home  and  pre- 
caution by  sea  are  equally  advisable. 

When  the  source  of  a  disease  is  known,  the 
means  of  evading  it  are  more  easily  disco- 
vered ;  and  it  is  believed  the  mode  adopted 
by  the  enlightened  corporation  of  this  city 
will  be  productive  of  very  salutary  effects. 
They  propose,  we  are  told,  to  fill  up  the 
present  slips,  and  give  a  solid  front  on  the 
East-river,  that  shall  extend  from  the  Battery 
to  Corlaer's  Hook.  By  this  operation  the 
eddy  tides  will  be  prevented  from  leaving 
putrescent  vegetable  and  animal  substances  in 
the  slips,  which,  exposed  to  the  sun  at  low 
water,  have  been  volatilized,  and  have  be- 
come a  fruitful  source  of  the  cause  of  yellow 
fever  among  the  warehouses  and  dwellings 
on  the  East-river.  May  those  useful  citizens 
persevere  in  their  laudable  exertions  to  re- 
medy and  remove  nuisances  which  have  im- 
perceptibly crept  in  among  us,  and  have  lately 
increased  to  a  very  destructive  degree !  May 
they  live  to  see  health  and  happiness  beam  in 
every  countenance,  as  the  just  reward  of  their 
paternal  care !    Then  quarantine  laws,  which 


28 

prevent  persons  sick  of  pestilential  diseases 
from  entering  our  city,  detain  infected  mer- 
chandize at  a  distance  from  our  dwellings, 
and  order  infected  vessels  to  be  perfectly 
cleansed,  will  be  productive  of  all  the  benefits 
which  the  most  zealous  advocates  for  importa- 
tion can  desire.     # 

It  is  conceived  that  much  advantage  might 
be  derived  from  an  additional  improvement 
on  the  East^river.  Let  the  surface  of  the 
made  grounds  be  covered  with  a  layer  of  lime 
five  or  six  inches  deep,  and  let  that  lime  be 
covered  with  gravel.  It  is  known  that  lime 
is  very  powerful  in  destroying  such  parts  of 
animal  and  vegetable  bodies  as  are  subject  to 
the  putrefactive  process,  which  it  does  by  its 
eager  attraction  of  their  constituent  principles, 
and  by  neutralizing  them.  Therefore  it  is 
presumed  that  the  proposed  layer  of  lime 
would  arrest  the  ascent  of  destructive  airs,  by 
forming  compounds  which  would  possess 
properties  different  from  those  airs  in  their 
separate  state,  and  not  injurious  to. the  healtlv 
of  man. 

FINIS. 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  date  indicated  below,  or  at  the 
expiration  of  a  definite  period  after  the  date  of  borrowing, 
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rangement with  the  Librarian  in  charge. 

DATE  BORROWED 

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C28(23S)M100 

M-RC206 


B34 


Bay ley 

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origin  an 
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